Plastic bottles or similar containers are typically used to store liquids such as water, soft drinks, motor oil, milk, cooking oil, consumer healthcare products such as shampoo and soap, and inks. They are also used to store solids such as cat litter, pet food products, consumer food products such as coffee, and other foodstuffs. Plastic bottles are popular with manufacturers, distributors, and consumers due to their light weight and relatively low production costs as compared to glass bottles.
Plastic bottles are formed using a variety of techniques depending upon the choice of material and application. However, most manufacturing techniques involve heating the polymeric material above its melting temperature and then forming the material into a desired shape by molding, and in many applications by stretch blow molding.
Many bottle manufacturers or recyclers also apply labels after forming bottles. However, if labels are applied to a newly manufactured bottle, a variety of label defects often occur such as formation of bubbles, darts, wrinkles, or the like. As a result of this phenomenon, manufacturers typically store newly formed bottles for pre-designated periods of time before labelling. These bottle storage periods are referred to in the industry as “dwell times.” Dwell times can be as long as 72 hours. The industry has several theories as to why bottle dwell storage reduces the occurrence of label defects. One theory is that the bottle requires time to attain dimensional stability as shrinkage may occur as the bottle cools to ambient temperature after molding. Regardless, storing bottles after their manufacture is costly and can require significant storage and inventory tracking systems particularly for high speed and continuous bottle manufacturing processes. This can represent a significant cost of storage and the potential for graphics to change, which will create waste.
Accordingly, a need exists for a strategy by which plastic containers could be labelled soon after their manufacture and bottle dwell storage could be avoided or at least the time period for such could be reduced.